Texas lawmaker: If cities, counties balk at property tax changes, state officials will ‘shove it down their throat’

Rep. Dennis Bonnen speaks with a group of legislators on the House floor in April.

Rep. Dennis Bonnen speaks with a group of legislators on the House...

AUSTIN — Cities and counties that balk at an effort to more tightly regulate their property tax collections will find that state officials will “shove it down their throat” in a special session, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dennis Bonnen said Monday.

Express Newsletters

Get the latest news, sports and food features sent directly to your inbox.

His comments came as the regular legislative session races to its May 29 conclusion with a number of leaders’ top priorities in limbo — including Senate Bill 2, the property tax measure.

“The cities and counties refuse to accept any version of Senate Bill 2, so I look forward to working with the governor and the lieutenant governor to shove it down their throat in a special session,” Bonnen, R-Angleton, told the San Antonio Express-News.

Bonnen said cities and counties are “working feverishly” to keep even a pared-down version of SB 2 from being scheduled for a vote on the House floor.

The bill is a priority of Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who say homeowners are strapped by the cost of property taxes.

The Texas Municipal League’s executive director, Bennett Sandlin, said his group isn’t trying to block the version of the bill that passed Bonnen’s committee from House consideration.

The league opposed a version that passed the Senate, which would have instituted automatic rollback elections if cities or counties increased property tax revenues by more than 5 percent.

Local officials in San Antonio and across the state say that would cap their ability to raise enough revenue to address needs such as public safety.

Bonnen took that rollback provision out of his bill to win his House committee’s support. As it now stands, the bill would make changes meant to give voters a better understanding of their tax bills and how they can have a say in the process.

“We support transparency and will be supportive so long as caps aren’t added back in,” Sandlin said.

But Paul Sugg, legislative director of the Texas Association of Counties, said there is no guarantee that the bill wouldn’t be amended on the House floor to reinstate the rollback provisions.

“No one will guarantee anything,” Sugg said.

He and other local officials have long emphasized that school property taxes are a bigger share of people’s tax bills than the taxes that would be affected by SB 2. The state could ease that burden by taking on a bigger share of education funding.

“We have consistently opposed concerted efforts to blame cities and counties for a failing school finance system, the real source of pressure on property-tax payers,” Sugg said. “We support transparency and more information for voters, not the arbitrary lowering of the rollback rate, a strategy long supported by the lieutenant governor and his allies.”

While lawmakers and others may speculate about a special session, only the governor can call such a session and set its agenda.

Abbott would have to do so if lawmakers fail to pass a state budget to ensure state services are funded in the next two years. Other items could be added to the special-session agenda if that happens.

But Abbott hasn’t said which issues besides the budget — if any — might prompt him to call lawmakers into an overtime session.

There’s also no assurance that if the property tax bill fails in regular session it would pass in a special session.

Abbott is focusing on the current session, said his spokesman, John Wittman.

“The governor has, in fact, been working with Chairman Bonnen to achieve property tax reform in Texas. The governor considers it essential that property tax reform pass during the regular session,” Wittman said.

Under current law, voters can petition for a rollback election if those entities increase property tax revenue collections by more than 8 percent, with exclusions for certain items, including new construction.

As approved by the Senate, such elections would be automatic if local officials propose a 5 percent increase in revenues.

Bonnen said he didn’t have enough committee support for the rollback changes, so he took those provisions out of the bill, leaving the portions intended to provide better information.

The next step would be for the Calendars Committee to put the bill on the House schedule for a vote. If the bill isn’t scheduled for a vote, or if it is scheduled too late to meet end-of-session deadlines, it will die.

Bonnen said he has enough votes in the full House to pass the measure, “but the cities and counties are working feverishly to ensure that it doesn’t come to the (House) floor, which is fine by me.”

“Like I said, I look forward to working with the lieutenant governor and the governor during the summer special session to shove it down their throat so that taxpayers can be protected and informed better than they are currently,” Bonnen said.

Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who is author of SB 2, said, “Once Dennis gets that colorful in his language, I can only second the motion. .... Let’s not waste an opportunity to vote on it now.”